Delta's low-cost carrier schedules takeoff for April 15

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that its new low-cost carrier, Song, would start service April 15 by flying between New York and West Palm Beach, Fla.

Service will gradually expand until November, Delta said, when Song will operate 144 daily flights with a fleet of 36 Boeing 757s to connect three Northeast cities and Washington with five Florida cities. Executives said the airline's fares would compete with those of other low-cost carriers and that passengers would be asked to pay extra for optional food and entertainment, such as limited access to Web sites.

But the market has not been kind to low-cost subsidiaries run by traditional carriers. United Airlines, Continental Airlines and US Airways have all tried and failed at operating smaller carriers with supposedly lower costs. Delta's own Delta Express, which will be shut down with the start of Song, has been considered a dud by many analysts.

The president of Song, John Selvaggio, said the airline would have a competitive cost structure because it would use its planes and workers more hours each day than Delta does now. The 757s will be used an average of 13.2 hours a day, he said, and will have a turnaround time between flights of about 50 minutes. Workers will be expected to be more productive, Selvaggio said, since there will be less idle time than in hub-and-spoke operations.

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Song is Delta's latest effort to stanch the flow of East Coast passengers to popular low-cost carriers like JetBlue Airways and AirTran Airways. Both of those airlines serve the popular Florida leisure market from the Northeast. JetBlue runs direct flights, while AirTran has one-stop flights through airports in Atlanta and Newport News, Va.

"JetBlue is really a formidable competitor," said Darryl Jenkins, director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University. "There's just no lick around that. These guys are very good at what they do. For what it's worth, this will be very good competition for JetBlue."